With the hours ticking away before American voters go to the polls in tomorrow’s mid-term elections, US President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Democrat Barack Obama, have turned up the heat to ratchet up last-minute support.

Trump preferred to focus on Georgia, the location of a school shooting a few months earlier, and ramped up right-wing rhetoric by pointing at the immigration situation south of the US border with Mexico.

Obama in turn showed what a powerful orator he is through the expression of clear and cutting insights whilst on the campaign trail in Indiana.

Supporting the view that the election is a referendum of sorts for the protectionist policies of a Republican administration who has done as much harm as good to the US economy, Obama said “the character of our country is on the ballot.

“The only check right now on the behaviour of these Republicans is you and your vote.”

But the Republicans, under fire for the harm their tariff policies have caused at home, in many instances harming conservative farming communities that voted for Trump two years ago, had the good luck of a strong set of labour data released by the Labour Department.

Reuters quoted a statement saying that unemployment was sitting at 3.7 percent – a 49-year low –and that wages had notched the “best annual gain in almost a decade”.

Obama claimed that the labour sector was rebounding from good work started under his tenure.

Trump said the Democrats would “take a wrecking ball to the economy” if they got back in.

In the meantime the Republicans have found their support eroded, and the Democrats look likely to secure the 23 seats they need for a majority in the House of Representatives.

If that happens, the Democrats would have the necessary electoral sanction to investigate Trump’s administration and intervene in legislative decisions.

Haunted by persistent allegations of gaining power through underhanded back-room machinations that involved Russian involvement inter alia, such a situation could prove untenable for Trump.

It could also strengthen the case for impeachment proceedings against him.

As for the US Senate, America’s most reactionary government in years look set to retain its slight two-seat majority.